Hello

We are wondering about the best way to get rid of mesquite trees.

We've heard everything from chemicals and mixes to having them pulled up with a dozer, so we are wondering what you all have found works best.

Thanks!

Root plowing. Why you want to get rid of 'em?

FIRE? Well, as in cut them down, dice em up, and they make great smoking wood once dried.

It depends ....... how big?

http://texnat.tamu.edu/BRSHBST/index.htm

Yep, depends on the size.

Root plow the bigger ones, spray the smaller ones.

We did spray some bigger ones by helicopter once.

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We are wondering about the best way to get rid of mesquite trees.

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Sell land with mesquite trees.

Use money to buy land without mesquite trees.

Repeat as needed.

You will never get rid of mesquite. Best you can do is control. How large of a place are you wanting to clear? If you are talking around range land.Best way I have found is Hyd. shear and spray with 15% remedy/deisel mix; then every other year spray from a 4 wheeler any new ones(spray same mix). We have tried everything going back to the days of coal oiling the trunks.

How much land and how many tree are you talking about.

If you are talking about a few trees on a couple acres put a cable around the base of the tree and hook it to the tow ball on a truck and pull them out of the ground. If you are talking a lot of trees one many acres then it's another story.

We have a mix of Reclaim, Remedy, soap and diesel I believe that works pretty good on huisache(sp?). I would assume it works the same on mesquite. We have a lot of little ones that pop up all around on the ranch.

My brother spends right at a week a year doing nothing but spraying that stuff, and we're getting it under control. But we don't have big trees of it, I dug the big trees out with a dozer and burned them. As a good rule of thumb, don't burn brush piles of huisache. Push it into the creek or something. We have/had big patches of little new plants coming up everywhere it was burned.

Our neighbor has a couple hundred acres of prime real estate covered up with solid big huisache trees. They're looking at using a crop duster to kill it.

By hatchet, axe and saw.

I don't remember Mesquite in that song...

Doesn't spraying kill everything around the trees as well?

The Remedy/Reclaim/surfactant(soap)/water or diesel mix has worked for me. I have sprayed this off the back of a fourwheeler as well as with a backpack pump/sprayer. The former is much more tolerable.

As has been said, ariel spray if it is a large area and you want them all gone. If you want to leave a few big ones (to have some shade), use a dozer and work around them. No matter what, it is a continuing process.

It is like trying to get rid of Yaupon in East Texas. It always comes back. Blade it down, then shred the saplings the next season.

Mouth, that is the worst plan you could use. That will end up with many more sprouts and you will never kill it. Price per plant shredding mesquite is more expensive than any other treatment.

Have lots of barbecues.

1. get chainsaw
2. cut in small logs
3. load up in truck
4. deliver to my house

Easy enough!

Do you know what you get when you shred a mesquite/huisache/youpon? A short, angry mesquite/huisache/youpon. Shredding will not kill any of them any time.

For the love of God, read the Brushbusters link I posted.

If the trees are large and numerous, aerial spraying is probably the best place to start. It will kill most of the trees. Any large trees left can be dealt with using a grubber on a dozer or excavator.

On smaller mesquite, the Brush Busters spray methods are the way to go. If you have small, single stemmed mesquite that still have the smooth bark, stem spraying may be the route to go. For multi-stemmed or trees already large enough the bark at the base is no longer smooth, foliar spraying is the way to go. This is also the way to go for follow-up treatments following grubbing or aerial spraying.

On other good option for controlling small mesquite is a skid steer loader with a grubber attachment. It costs a little more than spraying, but done correctly, there will be no survivors. Another advantage is it can be done anytime there is enough moisture in the soil you can dig the trees up.

Yep as suggested above just get a shredder and give 'em hell. Besure and take pictures for us and post year to year so we can have a great laugh.

Shredder killed off nearly all the yaupon on my 4 acre lot. Just took persistence, IE shredding every 3 months. The roots die eventually if they never get sun. They can't live forever without photosynthesis.

Perhaps mesquite is different..never attacked it with a tractor before, just a saw. It's the damn beans that get you, and if you let shoots come up and resume photosynthesis, they'll keep the roots alive, so I suppose you'd have to shred very often for a long time, and it would be a pain in the arse. I guess as drought adapted as it is, it would just go dormant, and keep coming back.

I'll defer to the experts on this one. Oh well, if you chop it down, it's out of your way for a while at least.

Somehow, I get the feeling that pouring a mix with diesel on stuff isn't quite legal, but it's been done so long nobody cares one way or the other. If it works, it works.

I'll leave the mesquite killing to the experts, and go back to killing Yaupon. I'm good at that.


[This message has been edited by MouthBQ98 (edited 5/16/2008 10:22p).]

[This message has been edited by MouthBQ98 (edited 5/16/2008 10:25p).]

The longer one lives in Houston, the smarter they get.

1 gallon Remedy : 4 gallons diesel.

spray basal on trunks all the way around to the point of runoff from ground level to 18" up. DO NOT GET ANY ON THE LEAVES.

Without diesel, u can spray remedy with water foliarly.

Reclaim is another great product designed for mesquites.

You could also use Spike 20P. These are pellets that you sprinkle under the unwanted trees. It takes about 1 year to kill, but they are extremely effective.

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pouring a mix with diesel on stuff isn't quite legal,

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you're not pouring it your spraying the base of the trees with it. And it is legal, that's the recommendation from the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Man I hate that name change.

Spike does not work on mesquite. On yaupon, a cut stump treatment will work nicely with Remedy and diesel.

doze area: make sure you get the rout ball
rake dozed area
spend the rest of your life spraying saplings that pop up in dozed area.

In my experience(we've been using this method for the last 5 years) this is the only way to go. We' ve sprayed from 4 wheeler, air plane, and on foot, but the only effective way is the dozer. I'm sure there are other ways, but the dozer is deffenitely the most fun.

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Texas AgriLife Extension Service. Man I hate that name change.

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I didn't realize there was a problem with the old name.

AgriLife? WTF?

Starting my annual spray program this coming week...spray huisache the first week or so in October with Grazon P*D---lot better than Reclaim/Remedy leaf spray this time of year. I believe Brush Busters also reference the huisache Fall spraying in their handouts.

Thanks so much for all of the replies and suggestions!

We have about 5 acres of our place that has a heavy concentration of mesquite trees. The trees are about 6-8 inches in diameter.

Thanks!

If the trees are that big, I think you are better off renting a dozer for a day or two.

If you spray them, you'll have to wait until they die then come back and cut them down. After you cut them you might have to spray them for couple more years. You'll be left with five acres of stumps.

Doze them. That way you can pick the trees you want to leave if you so choose and have everthing else smoth. No stumps.

If you pile the dozed trees it makes a pretty good hidden spot for quail. Bad thing though, is it makes a pretty good home for rats, racoons, and various other varmits.

Good luck.

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spray huisache the first week or so in October with Grazon P*D---lot better than Reclaim/Remedy leaf spray this time of year.

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Yeah, I'm gonnna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that one.

The reason people don't use Reclaim in the first place is due to the cost compared to other treatments. As far as I'm concerned, it costs 4-6 times more and pays for itself because it's that much more effective. In the long run, you spend the same amount of or less money, but spend an assload less time doing the spraying.

We've tried just about everything on huisache. A mix of reclaim/remedy/soap/diesel works best. Recently, we've drastically cut the amount of diesel in our mix and replaced it with soap. Soap was more expensive than diesel before....now not so much.

Cut them down and treat them with Tordon 22K

Tordon 22k is a federal restricted use pesticide. The picloram will kill small seedling mesquites in a broadcast application (like spraying with 1.5 pints to a quart of P+D), but as I've never basal sprayed any with it.

Remedy is unrestricted as far as I know.

I hear that they are phasing out P+D for the "Grazon Next" product. I looked at it and it isn't labled for most of the stuff Texans need to kill, and is mostly 2,4-D. Supposedly 22k will continue to be available (the P in P+D) and you can just mix it in with 2,4-D for pasture weed and seedling mesquite control.

I have used the P+D Fall spray mix with real good results... too bad they are changing the mixture. Have spot sprayed (around the base) of some huisache in fencelines this year with Velpar L--they are very sick right now. Am using the Remedy/Reclaim mix on mesquite and retama now.